Style Glossary: Waistcoats, Jumpers, and Singlets

It’s a cool, overcast grey morning in England. Without paying much attention to the weather cues around you, you decide to step out in your favorite striped singlet and a vintage leather waistcoat. There’s no doubt you look stylish, but are you dressed appropriately? Your mother begs to differ.

“Are you crazy? It’s much too cold to be wearing just a singlet and a waistcoat! Go inside and put on a jumper!”

For those of us who live in America, here’s a little translation – in Sydney, London, and beyond, the sleeveless tops we know as tank tops are called singlets,vests are called waistcoats (a sophisticated term I’m determined to popularize here in the U.S.), and sweaters are dubbed jumpers.

We love fashion nomenclature as much as the next person, so share with us your local clothing terms in the comments below!

As a New Zealander, I have no issue with ‘singlet’, but I think it’s more of an Antipodean thing. They’re usually called vests in the Uk (where I currently live).
Just to add another level to the mix… in NZ/AUS/The US ‘pants’ refers to trousers – i.e. outerwear. In the UK it means underwear – i.e. underpants. Very confusing when a New Zealander tells a Brit their pants are falling down!

Thanks for your feedback, ladies! It’s so interesting to learn of the differences between common clothing terms. And Kate, I think you’re right – from my research, singlet seems to be more of an Australian or New Zealand term for a sleeveless shirt. Sorry for any confusion!

Where I live in Australia, we call singlets, singlets OR tank tops. And we don’t call vests waistcoats either, but it did get little confusing when my American Uncle came over to Australia and I asked him to get my jumper…He had no idea what I meant!! He thought maybe I had a pet frog I wanted to bring, lol!
Yes Morgan, I understand completely!! I have had some very funny incidents happy to me! But I think the worst story was when some American friend of ours were visiting. Here we call what I think Americans call ‘flipflops’, ‘thongs’ and me not relizing they only thought of thongs as in the underpants, I yelled out to my brother, “(my brothers name), I can’t find my thongs, did you borrow them again?!”
I completely scandalized them!

I am a British girl studying in the USA and I have to admit these different words trip me up on a daily basis!!
I agree with everyone else who has said that a tank top is a vest though. I don’t think the word singlet has been used in the UK in the last couple of centuries.
I find the vest/vest thing confusing though- our vest and your vest are very different things!!
Jumpers are jumpers though!!

Calling them “wife-beaters” actually isn’t just and Aussie-ism. It’s pretty common where I live–the southern United States. I prefer to avoid the allusion to domestic violence and just call them “undershirts.” It doesn’t bear any reference to t-shirts anymore, since they’ve become outerwear, not underwear.

What Americans call ‘jumpers,’ or ‘rompers,’ I think here in Sydney I’d call it a jumpsuit.

Singlet is definitely an Australian term, but I’ve only ever head Americans call them ‘wife beaters.’

One of my favourites is our habit of calling track pants ‘tracky daks’ or a track suit just a ‘tracky.’
There’s also the flannel shirt, or ‘flanno’ and men’s shorts, called ‘stubbies’ after a certain brand. Wear with socks and thongs.